1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an athletic glove and, more particularly, to an improved anti-slip glove, especially for use in conjunction with various athletic activities, having a palm surface printed with a pattern of silicone sealant and exhibiting a durable and consistent gripping ability over a variety of moisture conditions.
2. Description of Related Art
Athletic gloves are widely used for various kinds of sports, including golf, baseball (batting American football, tennis and racquetball, to cover and thereby protect the human hand from injury, cold weather, etc. Athletic gloves used in these various sports are typically made of a very thin, supple material, such as natural leather or polyurethane artificial leather, generally having a thickness of 0.4-0.8 mm. Though often worn for protection only, these gloves, if properly designed, are believed by many to be essential to enhance their athletic performance, with one of the most essential characteristics of an athletic glove being gripping ability. Though many existing leather gloves provide a very soft and supple feel, ample finger motion and a tactile response in addition to hand protection, the gripping ability of these gloves is generally considered inferior to that of the bare human hand.
xe2x80x9cTackifiedxe2x80x9d leather gloves are significantly improved in terms of the enhancement of gripping ability by an impregnation of a conventional leather glove using a solution of a tackifying resin. However, the tackified material imparts a wet, oily, tacky feel, and the tacky residue is objectionable to the skin. To solve this problem, U.S. Pat. No. 4,689,832 issued to Mulvaney describes a glove whose inner surface is xe2x80x9cde-tackifiedxe2x80x9d with a solution containing nitrocellulose and silicone resins.
Another category of gloves are those having the palm piece and the back piece, or at least the palm piece, made out of polyurethane artificial leather, which generally provides the same good properties as does natural leather. Moreover, many woven and non-woven polyurethane artificial leathers are much more durable than natural (or tackified natural) leather, but have generally poorer gripping ability due to a lower friction force than the natural leather. To improve the gripping ability, U.S. Pat. No. 5,117,509 issued to Bowers describes a sport glove whose palm portion is made out of a sheet of leather material prepared by a chrome tanning process with a reduced oil content, wherein a uniformly thin layer of silicone sealant is bonded to the entire palm piece, so as to penetrate partially into the sheet of leather material and form a continuous coating throughout the palm piece. This continuous coating of silicone sealant, however, inhibits the desired properties of a soft and supple feel, ample finger motion, and tactile response, especially when used on thin leather of a thickness of 0.4-0.8 mm. This resulting degradation of the desired properties of an athletic glove occurs regardless of the degree of penetration, whether partial or thorough. In particular, due to the thin film effects of water, such a glove becomes very slippery when water or moisture of any kind (rain, perspiration, etc.) is present on the continuous silicone sealant coating, also regardless of the degree of penetration of the silicone sealant coating.
Silicone is used in the art of seamless gloves, such as surgical gloves manufactured as one integrally formed piece by dip-coating a solid hand-shaped mandrel to form a thin glove-like shell on the mandrel and removing the shell after curing. Such a glove, however, is so tight and its inner surface is so tacky that many problems arise; for example, removing the glove sometimes causes skin pain. U.S. Pat. No. 5,620,773 issued to Nash describes the dispersion of a one-part or two-part silicone with silica particles being embedded at the final dipping process, to form a glove having a textured inner surface having less friction and being easier to put on and to take off. Of course, the gripping ability of the glove""s outer surface as required for an athletic glove is unaffected.
Another category of glove is the winter sporting glove, to the palm area of which a patch of synthetic leather is secured by sewing. As described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,625,900 issued to Hayes, a tacky layer of elastomeric polymer is applied to the patch as a continuously embossed pattern having a plurality of openings. Though this kind of glove greatly improves gripping ability, the desired soft and supple feel, ample finger motion, and tactile response is impossible to achieve with the addition of the patch plus tacky layer, so that these gloves are impractical for sports activities requiring high sensitivity, such as golfing or batting. That is, these kinds of gloves, being especially useful for skiing, snowmobiling and other cold-weather sports activities, are generally provided with a thicker lining insulation, padding and other bulky layers. Therefore, though the additional layers do not detract from the objective of improved gripping ability, the added thickness inherently inhibits or even destroys sensitivity. Moreover, when water or moisture of any kind is present on the surface of the elastomeric polymer, the glove becomes slippery due to the thin film effects of water. These undesirable properties, i.e., excessive slippage in moisture conditions and poor sensitivity, preclude using an athletic glove of this type for golfing or batting.
All other existing athletic gloves have extremely poor gripping ability when dampened or fully saturated with water or moisture of any kind. Furthermore, since gripping ability is inconsistent under varying moisture conditions, the glove wearer (athlete) may lose the grip of a golf club or baseball bat or, sensing the change in grip, may exert excessive gripping force and grip too tightly so as to make the whole body overly rigid and thereby spoil the athletic motion of hitting, swinging, etc. Accordingly, there is a substantial need for athletic gloves having improved gripping ability, which is consistent in various moisture conditions, without losing a good, soft and supple feel, finger motion, and tactile response.
Accordingly, in order to overcome the above drawbacks of conventional athletic gloves, it is the object of the present invention to provide an improved anti-slip glove. Such a glove is embodied by an athletic glove including a palm portion made of a thin polyurethane-impregnated artificial leather exhibiting improved gripping ability, which is consistent over various moisture conditions and maintains the original properties of the leather material, i.e., a good, soft and supple feel, ample finger motion and tactile response, to promote sensitivity.
Therefore, in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention, there is provided an athletic glove largely comprising a palm portion and a back portion. The palm portion is made of artificial leather having a thickness of 0.4-0.8 mm on which a silicone sealant is printed, and properly penetrated to bond with the fibers of the artificial leather, in repeated patterns of fine lines, dots, geometric shapes, alphanumeric characters or a combination thereof, to provide improved gripping ability which is consistent over a variety of moisture conditions. The palm portion is preferably made of polyurethane-impregnated artificial leather, whether woven or non-woven, and is silk-printed, preferably with a two-part silicone sealant which requires more than one day to cure at room temperature but cures in approximately one or two minutes at 130-170xc2x0 C. In the process of the present invention according to a preferred embodiment, the printed silicone sealant should be adequately penetrated and properly bonded with the fiber of the polyurethane-impregnated artificial leather, so as to cover a minority portion(20-40%) of a surface area of the palm portion and to have a substantially level surface after being heat cured.
The athletic gloves of the present invention are especially useful as golf gloves, batting gloves, etc., which require high sensitivity together with good gripping ability.
Though the elastomeric material of conventionial athletic gloves is soft and supple, it is much bulkier and stiffer than bare artificial leather when applied as an additional embossed layer or in a partially penetrated continuous manner and thereby inhibits good, soft and supple feel, finger motion, and tactile response, despite an improved gripping ability. Moreover, the gripping ability of an athletic glove adopting the principles of the conventional art falls off greatly when the glove becomes wet or saturated with moisture, due to the thin film effects of water. However, when silicone sealant is applied in repeated patterns such as fine lines, dots, geometric shapes, alphanumeric characters or a combination thereof, so as to cover a minority portion of the palm surface, and is properly penetrated into the fibers of the polyurethane-impregnated artificial leather before curing by heat treatment, the gripping ability is greatly improved over the bare artificial leather, without losing its original good, soft and supple feel, finger motion, and tactile response. Therefore, consistent gripping ability of the athletic glove of the present invention is maintained even in varying moisture conditions.